7th International Obfuscated C Code Contest Rules
Copyright (c) 1990, Landon Curt Noll & Larry Bassel.
All Rights Reserved. Permission for personal, educational or non-profit use is
granted provided this this copyright and notice are included in its entirety
and remains unaltered. All other uses must receive prior permission in writing
from both Landon Curt Noll and Larry Bassel.
Obfuscate: tr.v. -cated, -cating, -cates. 1. a. To render obscure.
b. To darken. 2. To confuse: Their emotions obfuscated their
judgment. [LLat. obfuscare, to darken : ob(intensive) +
Lat. fuscare, to darken < fuscus, dark.] -obfuscation n.
obfuscatory adj.
GOALS OF THE CONTEST:
* To write the most Obscure/Obfuscated C program under the rules below.
* To show what should NOT be done in C programs.
* To provide a safe forum for poor C code. :-)
DEDICATION:
The 1990 International Obfuscated C Code Contest is dedicated to ANSI C.
RULES:
To help us handle the vast volume of entries, we ask that you
follow the rules below. Sorry for the length, but we need all
the help we can get!
1) Your source MUST be 1536 bytes or less, and it must be a complete
program, not just a subroutine.
2) To help us process your entries, we ask that you submit entries
in the following format. Please be sure to include ALL --- lines,
otherwise our extraction program may skip your entry!
---header items---
name: Your name, of course!
org: School/Company/Organization
email address: Email address from a well known site, or in a registered domain
postal address: Postal address
include your country as well
environment: Indicate the Hardware
and OS under which your program was tested
entry: 5
remarks: Remarks may be continued with leading whitespace until the
line ---how to compile-- is encountered. (see #3 below)
---how to ANSI compile---
X Give the command(s) needed to compile your program using an ANSI C
X compiler. If you program should not be compiled under an ANSI C compiler,
X leave this section blank. Follow the format rules for the program
X section below, except that command size must be 160 characters or less.
---how to common compile---
X Give the command(s) needed to compile your program using an K&R/traditional
X C compiler. If you program should not be compiled under a K&R style C,
X leave this section blank. Follow the format rules for the program section
X below, except that command size must be 160 characters or less.
---program---
X Place obfuscated source of 1536 characters or less in this section.
X Add a leading X to each line to avoid problems with mailers.
X Some mailers don't like files with very long lines. If your entry contains E
C lines longer 80 chars we ask you to form continuation line sets. To form E
C a continuation line set, place an 'E' character at the point of a split E
C and place a C (instead of an X) at the beginning of the next line. E
C Finally, end the continuation line set as normal.
X The E\nC's and leading X's will be removed prior to extraction and thus E
C they don't contribute toward the source character count. All other E
C characters are considered to be source. Whitespace after 'X' or 'C' E
C and before the 'E' is significant, we added it here for readability.
X Newlines and tabs each count as 1 character. Assume 8 character tab stops.
X If your entry does not end in a newline, leave a final 'E' on the end. E
---end---
3) Regarding the header items:
* Any text outside of the above format will be kept confidential.
* All header lines are required, but you may use 'anonymous'
for any header line other than 'remarks' or 'entry'.
* In the 'remarks' please include:
- what this program does
- why you think the program is obfuscated
- any other remarks (humorous or otherwise)
4) Your entry should be written in common C (K&R + common extensions)
or ANSI C. If your program will NOT compile under an ANSI C or
K&R C compiler, leave the particular 'how to' section blank.
You do not have to fill in both 'how to' sections, though you must
fill in at least one 'how to' section.
If you leave a 'how to' section blank, include the '---' line, but
but having no command lines after it.
5) The program must be of original work. All programs must be
in the public domain. All copyrighted programs will be rejected.
6) Entries must be received between 16-Mar-90 0:00 GMT and
26-May-90 0:00 GMT. Email your entries to:
...!{sun,pacbell,uunet,utzoo,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!obfuscate
We will attempt to Email a confirmation of receipt of contest
entries, however since Email is not reliable you may not receive it.
We regret that we can no longer accept entries via postal mail.
7) Each person may submit up to 8 entries. Multiple entries must
be sent in separate Email letters.
8) Entries that can not be built automatically in a portable makefile
are not allowed. (e.g., don't use #include "/dev/tty")
9) Starting this year, compiling entries must result an regular file
which can be executed. (No -o /dev/tty or similar compile lines)
ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS:
* First announcement will likely be at the Summer 90 Usenix BOF.
* Winning entries will be posted in mid June 1990 to
comp.sources.unix as well as news groups where these rules
were posted. (depending on the judges work load)
* Winning entries will be deposited into the uunet archives.
* An article containing the winning entries will be published
in a future issue of the "Micro/Systems Journal".
* Winners receive international fame and flames! :-)
JUDGING:
Awards will be given to the best entry in a number of categories.
The actual category list will vary depending on the types of entries
we receive. As a guide, consider using the following:
* The best small one line program
* The strangest source layout
* The most useful obfuscated program
* The most creatively obfuscated program
* Best obfuscated entry smaller than 256 bytes
* Best obfuscated entry smaller than 1024 bytes
* Best abuse of ANSI
* Worse abuse of the rules (no abuse of entry format please!)
*
POINTS TO PONDER:
People are encouraged to examine winners of the previous
contests. A copy of these entries was posted to
comp.sources.unix. Contact the comp.sources.unix moderator, or
some archive site (such as uunet). Keep in mind that rules
change from year to year, so some winning entries may not be
valid entries this year. What was unique and novel one year
might be 'old' the next year. In short, use your best judgment.
We examine each entry on several levels of confusion. For example
each entry is judged when we:
* look at the original source
* run it through: sed -e ',^#[ ]*define,d' | /lib/cpp
* run it through: sed -e ',^#[ ]*include,d' | /lib/cpp
* run it through a C beautifier
* examine the algorithm
* compile and lint it
* execute it
One line programs are best when they are short, obscure and concise.
We tend to dislike programs that:
* are very hardware specific
* are very OS or Un*x version specific
(index/strchr differences are ok, but socket/streams specific
code is likely not to be)
* dump core or have compiler warnings
(it is ok only if you warn us in the 'remark' header item)
* won't compile under both BSD or SYS V Un*x
* use an excessively long compile line to get around the size limit
* are longer than they need to be
* are similar to previous winners
* are similar to previous losers :-)
Simply abusing #defines or -Dfoo=bar won't go as far as a program
that is more well rounded in confusion.
Unless you are cramped for space, or unless you are entering the
'best one liner' category, we suggest that you format your program
in a more creative way than simply forming excessively long lines.
We like programs that:
* are as concise and small as they need to be
* do something quasi-interesting
* pass lint without complaint (particularly strict ANSI ones)
* are portable
* are unique or novel in their obfuscation style
* MAKE USE OF A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF OBFUSCATION
* make us laugh and/or throw up :-)
Some types of programs can't excel in some areas. Of course, your
program doesn't have to excel in all areas, but doing well in several
areas really does help.
Be creative!
The Judging will be done by Landon Noll and Larry Bassel. If you have
any QUESTIONS or COMMENTS, please feel free to send them to:
...!{sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!judges
judges@toad.com
however contest entries should be sent to:
...!{sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!obfuscate
obfuscate@toad.com
chongo /\cc/\ hoptoad!chongo
Larry Bassel {amdahl,ucbvax,cbosgd}|sun!lab